Impromptu, a husband, sitting on Scarborough Beach on the
most gorgeous first day of fall, suggests to his wife dinner with friends on
the deck of the Black Point Inn to watch the sunset.
The friends are called, friends who generally have to book
out months in advance to get something on the calendar, friends busy with work,
adult children and very full lives. Both
couples say YES enthusiastically. What a
great idea! They can, and they’d love
to.
The six have drinks overlooking Ferry Beach while they wait
for a table on the outdoor deck. This
Labor Day weekend, Black Point Inn is crowded.
The restaurant is filled with chatty two-somes – older couples,
beautiful young married couples, and middle aged couples escaping their city
lives wearing sun dresses, madras shorts, sandals and deck shoes. They all have colorful cocktails in festive
glasses; they sit in the white Adirondack chairs overlooking the expanse of low
tide at Ferry Beach on the green, green grass; they eat delicious food.
It darkens and the fall evening chill sets in, on only day
two of September, but the six get two round tables pushed together with high
wicker chairs, and sit down amid sparkling outdoor candlelight. They laugh.
They talk about kids leaving for graduate school in Chicago; kids
heading to Endicott College as freshmen; kids entering senior year of high
school. They talk and laugh about old
times. They raise their glasses to make
not one but two toasts. They share eyeglasses
to see the menu…and laugh about that.
After dinner, they stroll down the stone path to see the
full length of Scarborough Beach under a full moon, dimmed by clouds. Waves lap the shore. They bask in the beauty, these six friends
who have been together more than half their lives.
A playful cat runs in and out of their single line walking
back up the path, and one friend hides in the bushes ahead in the dark to
ambush another. The pranksters. They always were. They fall to the ground….laughing, older,
grown men, playful and silly. They run
back up to the inn, slam car doors and head back to busy lives. But they revel in the pause and laughter they
just shared. Impromptu.
Photo: Ferry Beach, Scarborough, ME
